The Rise of Real World Assets (RWAs)

The single biggest narrative in crypto isn’t a new memecoin or a layer-1, but something that connects the digital world to everything in the real world. BlackRock’s CEO, Larry Fink, has said that:

“The next generation for markets, the next generation for securities, will be the tokenization of securities.”

Figure: Larry Fink discussing the future of financial markets and the role of tokenized securities.

He is obviously talking about Real-World Assets. Estimates from firms like Boston Consulting Group predict this could be a $16 trillion market by 2030.

Figure: Headline highlighting market predictions for the rapid growth of real-world asset (RWA) tokenization.

For years now, people have said that your house, your art, your stocks etc. would all be on the blockchain.

• Is anything different now?
• Is the Real-World Asset narrative finally here?
• What are the risks to your privacy and financial freedom that you don’t see talked about a lot by the large financial giants promoting them?

Real-World Assets is one of the most important and fastest-growing sectors in the entire crypto space.

What Are Real-World Assets?

What is Real-World Asset “tokenization”?

Tokenization is the process of creating a digital token on a blockchain that represents ownership of a real-world asset.

It is like a digital deed or a certificate of ownership. This token proves you own a specific thing:

• Whether this can be a physical asset, like a bar of gold, a piece of art, or a fraction of an apartment building.
• Or this can be a financial asset, like a stock, a government bond, or even an invoice from a business.

In fact, many people already use the biggest and most successful Real-World Asset every single day, which is stablecoins. A token like USDC or USDT is just a digital token backed 1-to-1 by a real-world asset, in this case being pegged to a US dollar.

Figure: Illustration showing the USDC token pegged to the US Dollar, representing its 1:1 stablecoin value backing.

The Real-World Asset narrative is simply applying that same concept to everything else, hence why the market is predicted to become so big.

Why Is This a Big Deal? (The Opportunity)

• What is the point in tokenisation?
• Why take a perfectly good apartment building or a government bond for example and put it on a blockchain?

It really comes down to three key advantages.

• Fractionalization

The first is Fractionalization. Most people can’t afford to buy a $20 million apartment building let’s say, or a $500,000 painting.

• But what if you could “tokenize” that building into 20,000 digital shares worth $1,000 each?

Because tokenization allows you to break up expensive items into smaller, affordable pieces, opening up investment opportunities to a much wider audience.

• Liquidity

The second advantage is Liquidity. This is the one institutions love. Many of the world’s most valuable assets are “illiquid”; so they’re very hard to sell quickly or convert into cash.

The main example used to demonstrate this is selling a house because it normally takes months of paperwork, lawyers, agents etc. However, by tokenizing it, that asset can be traded on a digital market, 24/7, all over the world, which makes it more liquid and “unlocks” the value tied up in these often illiquid assets.

• Efficiency & Transparency

The third advantage is Efficiency & Transparency. Because, if we come back to stablecoins again, they’re faster and cheaper than traditional payment methods.

Instead of paying high fees and having to wait days for a transfer, relying on a dozen middlemen, banks, and clearing houses, all just working Monday to Friday 9-to-5, you can use smart contracts.

• Imagine owning a tokenized rental property. The rent could be collected and automatically paid out to all the token holders every single month.
• Or, imagine owning a tokenized bond. The interest or coupon payments are just sent directly to your wallet by the smart contract.

Given transactions on a blockchain are immutable and transparent to all, this all put together is why people like Larry Fink, the billionaire CEO of BlackRock, are so bullish. It is not about hype; it is about upgrading the entire financial system.

The Key Players (Who Is Building This?)

• Who is actually making this happen?

Because this is what is different from what we saw years ago. Now you have the institutional giants getting involved, most of whom were busy ignoring or belittling the space back then. The biggest signal for this was BlackRock launching its BUIDL fund in 2024, which is a fund on the Ethereum blockchain that represents ownership in US Treasuries, that has since expanded to six other blockchains, with it launching onSolana’s blockchain in March 2025.

Figure: BlackRock BUIDL Fund, the company’s tokenized U.S. Treasury fund offering blockchain-based access to real-world assets.

Franklin Templeton has a similar fund called the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund, using the Benji Token on originally the Stellar and Polygon blockchains that is one of the largest out there. This has also expanded to 9 blockchains now at the time of recording this, with BNB Chain being the latest in September 2025.

Figure: Franklin Templeton OnChain Fund, a blockchain-based investment vehicle offering tokenized access to U.S. government securities. Source: Franklin Templeton

These obviously aren’t crypto startups; they’re the largest asset management firms in the world, and they’re actively tokenizing financial assets. This momentum is accelerating. Just recently, JP Morgan announced it is tokenizing a private equity fund on its Kinexys platform.

Figure: JPMorgan’s Kinexys platform, enabling the tokenization and trading of alternative assets on blockchain infrastructure. Source: Kinexys

Securitize and BNY Mellon have launched a tokenized fund on-chain, backed by triple A-rated collateral.

Figure: BNY Mellon, a leading global custodian bank advancing digital asset custody and blockchain integration. Source: BNY Mellon.

Fidelity, with its Fidelity Digital Interest Token, or FDIT, which represents shares of the Fidelity Treasury Digital Fund.

Figure: Fidelity Treasury Digital Fund, providing blockchain-based access to U.S. Treasury securities through tokenization. Source: Fidelity

VanEck’s VBILL fund,

Figure: VanEck’s VBILL Fund, a tokenized investment vehicle offering exposure to short-term U.S. Treasury bills.

Goldman Sachs, which partnered with BNY Mellon in 2025 to create a digital asset platform on which to tokenise money market fund shares.

Figure: Announcement from Goldman Sachs and BNY Mellon on the launch of their collaborative digital asset platform initiative.

We have to be aware that this is happening now, and it is happening fast, with us just being able to touch the surface of this in this video.

Secondly, you have the Crypto-Native Protocols building the infrastructure.

Given that tokenized Treasuries is the hottest Real-World Asset category, as we’ve just seen, protocols like Ondo Finance are helping to lead the charge, allowing crypto users to buy tokens backed by short-term US Treasuries. When you look closer into Ondo Finance, it is founded by members from Goldman Sachs and has a close working relationship with BlackRock, so it is definitely part of this.

Figure: Ondo Finance, a platform specializing in tokenized real-world assets and blockchain-based investment products. Source: Ondo

Oracles then are the critical bridge. Because how does the blockchain know the price of gold for example?

It relies on an oracle network like Chainlink to securely feed that real-world data to smart contracts.

Figure: Chainlink, a decentralized oracle network connecting smart contracts with real-world data and off-chain assets. Source: Chainlink.

There are then blockchains, which are more tailor-made for Real-World assets, for example Polymesh, which is a blockchain built from the ground up to handle regulated Real-World assets, like tokenized stocks,

Figure: Polymesh, a blockchain platform purpose-built for regulated assets and institutional-

grade tokenization. Source: Polymesh.

as well as blockchains like Stellar and Algorand.

Figure: Stellar and Algorand, blockchain networks enabling fast, secure, and scalable transactions for digital assets and tokenized finance. Source: Stellar and Algorand.

Finally, to mention Centrifuge and Quant, who are also heavily involved in the Real-World Asset space.

Figure: Centrifuge and Quant, blockchain platforms focused on real-world asset tokenization and interoperable digital finance solutions. Source: Centrifuge and Quant.

The Other Side of the Token (The Risks & Concerns)

The sheer scale of Real-World Assets sounds promising, but we have to also look at the significant risks:

• Centralisation:

Firstly, Centralisation, because Real-World Assets are highly centralised, with crypto being about decentralization.

For example, a token for a bar of gold is worthless if you don’t trust the custodian who is physically holding that gold in a vault. We only have to go back to 1971 to know that.

A token for a house deed is useless if the legal system doesn’t recognize that token as true ownership. This re-introduces the very same middlemen, the same control and the same counterparty risk that crypto was supposed to eliminate.

• Regulation:

Secondly, we need to talk about Regulation because the legal and compliance framework for Real-World assets is still being built and is unclear. For example, is a token representing a fraction of an apartment a security?

Yes, it probably is because it is an investment contract with an expectation of a return.

Tokenised financial products like stocks, bonds, treasury bills, money market funds etc. are very likely to be securities also. However, is a token representing gold in a vault a security, probably not.

• How about your house being tokenised and being on the blockchain, with you owning some of it and a bank owning the rest of the tokens?

Most of this seems obvious, but a lot of it is new and needs to clarified, but if any are securities, that means they fall under strict regulations from bodies like the SEC in the US or the FCA in the UK.

A single ruling could really affect Real-World Asset projects here, as we’ve seen previously with companies being sued etc. for offering unregistered securities, let’s hope we don’t go back to that.

• Privacy, Surveillance and Control:

The third risk is about Privacy, Surveillance and Control.

Because the vision for tokenization unfortunately doesn’t stop at assets. There are active plans, like those in the UK, for tokenized digital identities, with the EU being active in this also in terms of a Real-World Asset actually being people who will be digitised.

In a best-case scenario, this is efficient. You have a token that proves you are you, and you can use it to access services very quickly.

• But what are the risks, which far outweigh any benefits?
• Because what happens when every asset you own—your house, your car, your stocks, your money (via a CBDC), and your ID; are all on a single, transparent, centralised ledger?

That creates the potential for a perfect system of surveillance and control. Your assets could be frozen or seized with a single line of code, with your transactions linked directly to your digital ID, so you could be prevented from accessing certain services or be fined straight away.

This is the dystopian side of the Real-World Asset narrative. The same tools that promise great efficiency for markets could also be used to enforce unprecedented social and financial control.

The Future of RWA Use Cases

What is the future of Real-World Asset use cases?

• Institutional Wave:

First is the institutional wave, which is already happening as we’ve seen. This is the tokenization of traditional financial assets.

Bonds and US Treasuries, like BlackRock’s BUIDL fund. Private credit & invoices, like Centrifuge. Equities, or tokenized stocks. Commodities, like Paxos’s $PAXG token, which is backed by real gold.

Figure: PAX Gold (PAXG), a digital asset backed by physical gold, offering tokenized ownership of London Good Delivery gold bars.

This is the multi-trillion-dollar market that BlackRock and the other financial giants are focused on.

• Consumer Wave

The second wave is the consumer wave, which is still in its very early days but is where it gets more tangible for an individual.

Real Estate or property is of course the big one with companies like Propy and RealT working on this through fractionalised real estate, but it will take a long time.

Figure: Propy and RealT, blockchain-based platforms enabling real estate tokenization and digital property ownership. Source: Propy and RealT.

Art and Collectibles, allowing fractional ownership of a rare painting or a classic car.

Intellectual Property, such as tokenizing music royalties, investors can get a cut every time a song is streamed. Gaming with platforms like Immutable X and Illuvium.

Imagine an in-game sword or a piece of land in a metaverse that is a Real-World Asset. It is not just an item inside the game; it is an asset you truly own and can trade.

Figure: Immutable and Illuvium, blockchain gaming platforms integrating NFTs and decentralized technology into digital gameplay ecosystems.

We’re even seeing this in Travel with the founder of Booking.com recently joining a Web3 travel firm called Staynexcom as Chairman.

Figure: Announcement of Staynexcom appointing the founder of Booking.com as Chairman, marking a strategic move in its global expansion.

Their goal is to reimagine the $11 trillion travel industry around ownership and rewards. Many of these have now created their own narratives, we can even mention industries like energy and healthcare here, which shows how tokenization could eventually touch almost every industry and why it is so huge.

How Can You Get Exposure to RWAs?

After all of that, if you still see the potential and understand the massive risks, how can you get exposure?

You generally have two main ways.

The first option is to invest in the tokenized assets themselves.

Option 1: Buy the Tokenized Asset

This is the most direct way. You could, for example, buy a tokenized US Treasury like Ondo’s $OUSG to earn a yield, or buy a tokenized gold token like Paxos’s $PAXG.

This is like buying the actual asset, just in token form.

The second option is to invest in the actual infrastructure.

Option 2: Buy the Infrastructure

Instead of buying the tokenized gold, you could invest in the protocols that are building the Real-World Asset ecosystem instead. This includes Real-World Asset-focused protocols, the Oracle that connects them, or Real-World Asset-specific blockchains. Investing in these tokens is a bet that the trend of tokenization will grow, regardless of which specific asset becomes most popular.

Conclusion: Hype or Future?

To conclude, Real-World Assets are no longer just hype, the institutional phase of this narrative has definitely begun in a big way. The involvement of BlackRock and other financial giants is the signal. The potential hype from 5 years ago was from crypto-native startups; the momentum today is from the largest financial players around.

The $16 trillion market size potential is very real, but it won’t happen overnight.

The first, most successful wave of tokenization surrounding financial assets is here to stay and will likely be a dominant narrative for the next 5, even 10 years.

The next wave; tokenizing your house, your art, or your in-game items; is more complex on the whole and faces significant legal and social hurdles, especially when you look at the number of industries represented, but we have certainly seen some progress here and it will be interesting to see where we are in 10 years, especially if we look at the impact of other narratives like DePin and AI.

James also offers 1:1 coaching for those genuinely looking to educate themselves in the crypto space. You can find links to contact us at Coin Knowledge and book a free call to learn more.

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Figure: Trezor, a leading company providing secure hardware wallets for cryptocurrency storage and management.

The latest top-of-the-range model of Trezor is, the Trezor Safe 5.

Figure: Trezor Safe 5, a next-generation hardware wallet designed for secure cryptocurrency storage and management. Source: Trezor.

The next crucial step is securing your seed phrase.

Cryptotag is the leading and best-selling storage device for that.

Figure: Cryptotag, a company known for its premium titanium backup solutions for securely storing cryptocurrency recovery phrases. Source: Cryptotag.

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Figure: CoinStats, a comprehensive cryptocurrency portfolio tracker and management platform. Source: CoinStats.

There is also Koinly, which is one of the best automated crypto tax platforms out there, and you can sign up for a free account.

Figure: Koinly, a cryptocurrency tax calculation and portfolio tracking platform.

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Figure: Myna & Nephos Group, firms specializing in accounting, taxation, and financial services for digital assets and cryptocurrency businesses. Source: Nephos Group.

Crypto Tax Audit, a leading crypto tax company in the United States. If you need help with your crypto tax planning, definitely check them out.

Figure: CryptoTaxAudit, a professional service specializing in cryptocurrency tax compliance and IRS audit defence. Source: CryptoTaxAudit.

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